The building of the structure of this new world Faith, a structure with many functions, was at the core of Bahai programs and policies, goals and game-plans, so to speak, from 1921 to 1996, a period of 75 years, as well as back into the 19th century.

My book Reflections on a Culture of Learning and Growth: Community and Individual Paradigm Shifts: A Contemporary, Historical, Futuristic and Personal Context has 680 pages(font-14), 790 pages(font-16) and 280 thousand words. It has been updated to include the most recent messages from the Universal House of Justice, up to and inclduing the latest Ridvan message of 21/4/'12, as well as some of the recent discussion in cyberpsace regarding this new Baha'i culture.

This book contains reflections and understandings regarding this new Baha'i culture of learning and growth, what amounts to a paradigmatic shift, in the Baha’i community which it has been going through in the last two decades(1996 to 2016)----since the mid-1990s. This newest, this latest, of the Abrahamic religions, has been developing a new culture as the last quarter of the first century of the Formative Age(1996-2021) has gone from year to year.

This new culture or paradigm will be developing in the decades ahead at least until 2044, the end of the second century of the Baha'i Era(1844 to 2044), and perhaps beyond into that third century, 2044 to 2144. Time will tell when the next paradigmatic shift will take place in the international Baha'i community. Go to this link at Baha'i Library Online to access the entire book: bahai-library.com/price_culture_learning...

that takes some time to read in its entirety. one thing jumped off the page...

If one googled the words "Alternative Perspectives on the Bahá'í Religion" one could get access to a host of views of the Bahai Faith from: (i) x-Bahais, (ii) unenrolled Bahais, (iii) Christian critics, (iv) Muslim critics,(v)Bahai critics, (vi) pre-Guardianship Bahais, (vii) Universalist Bahais, (viii) covenant-breakers, (ix) a variety of Orthodox Bahais, indeed, the list seems to be endless. If I took the list at all seriously I would wonder what had happened to the religion I have belonged to for decades. On close examination, though, and placed in a general context, all of this verbiage is, as Abdul-Baha emphasized, just so much froth at the edge of the ocean, froth that collects on the shore's edge and is here today and gone tomorrow, froth that one does not take seriously but which occupies one attention for a short time or no time at all. The froth may actually be gone tomorrow but it is different froth as a result of different waves of people none of whom have or will have any success in breaking the Covenant into pieces. This ancient term is now endowed with new meaning and it stands at the very centre of what it means to be a Bahai and what our own personal understanding of our place in the unfolding plan of God(NSA of USA, 1988, p.5).

Thanks, Aka_me, for your response. One of the problems with cyberspace is that it gives a public visibility to what would otherwise be individuals without a public platform. On the other hand, such individuals and groups can be dealt with in cyberspace, and only those who bother to read what they write are aware of them. The vast majority of the 5 to 8 million Baha'is never see what these people have written. I'm sure some who are investigating the Cause get put off; in my experience of more than 60 years association with the Cause, many seem to be easily put off a serious investigation of the Faith whether in cyberspace or real space.-Ron